


Sam Wilson: A Character Analysis (AKA This May Have Accidentally Turned Into a Sam/Steve Manifesto)

by puckity



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Character Analysis, Gen, M/M, Meta, Race in Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-06-09 11:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6903427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puckity/pseuds/puckity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A character analysis/burgeoning ship manifesto born out of my intense love for Sam Wilson after watching "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sam Wilson: A Character Analysis (AKA This May Have Accidentally Turned Into a Sam/Steve Manifesto)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [my Tumblr](http://puckity.tumblr.com/post/91299857155/sam-wilson-a-character-analysis-aka-this-may) on 6/9/14.
> 
> You can follow me [there](http://puckity.tumblr.com/) too, if you want!

[ ](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fmoviepilot.com%2Fposts%2F2013%2F10%2F29%2Ftrailer-breakdown-captain-america-the-winter-soldier-1157352%3Flt_source%3Dexternal%2Cmanual%23%21bbN6WA&t=N2NmM2RhYTcxZThhYjNhY2EwN2FjMjYxMDUwZTE0ZjNkZTczNmNlMixaUVNpdG1lOA%3D%3D)

So I’ve been thinking a lot about MCU Sam Wilson and how autonomy can be read into a character that—for being so amazing and an absolute treasure—is firmly relegated to the supporting cast in CA: TWS. We get some backstory (enough to establish at least a few defining characteristics and a vague personal history) but when it comes to understanding Sam’s motivation to follow Steve and become the Falcon the movie doesn’t actually give us all that much.

**Things The Audience Knows About Sam Wilson:**

  1. He’s a veteran.
  2. He lost his best friend and emotional co-pilot on the battlefield.
  3. He’s got some fancy pararescue training.
  4. He is jaded by war.
  5. He’s a VA counselor.
  6. He lives alone and is vigilant about it.
  7. As a person he’s fastidious (look at his apartment), self-disciplined, competitive, courageous, makes (casual) friends easily, is loyal, and is willing to sacrifice himself for something he believes in.
  8. As a soldier he’s skeptical, resourceful, a little reckless (in do-or-die situations), and utterly pragmatic—he doesn’t have some of the idealistic tendencies that Steve holds onto, perhaps because he knows what it’s like to believe in something/someone and watch it be ripped away from him. He’s watched at least one of his soldiers physically die before his eyes, which is something Steve hasn’t seen—he watched Bucky’s fall but notably didn’t witness the actual moment of (perceived) death.
  9. Contradicting that last point somewhat, Sam is totally a Captain America fanboy. (Like, he basically spends the entire time while Steve and Natasha are in his apartment going, “No, no, don’t go into that room—don’t worry about it, it’s not like there is a shrine to you in there or anything.”) It doesn’t make sense for the soldier in him, but maybe that’s what appeals to Sam—the idea of something incredible that shouldn’t even exist, and certainly should have failed already, but somehow keeps winning in spite of all the odds against it. That’s not the reality of war—not the reality of the war he knows—and maybe that’s why he allows himself to believe so hard in Captain America. Because Captain America is honor and nobility and facing impossible foes and it being hard and painful but at the end of the day it’s the good guys winning together and going out to eat Shawarma like they didn’t just almost die ten times over.



It’s that last point that’s been tripping me up mostly because—as hilarious as the reason BECAUSE HE’S CAP’S NUMBER ONE FAN is for the Falcon’s motivation—it’s incredibly reductive to Sam’s character to just believe that the main reason he joins Steve and Nat is because it’s his nerd fantasy come true.

It bothers me that this reasoning can be accepted because becoming the Falcon isn’t about just being a superhero, being Cap’s partner—it’s about going to war again. The conversations between Steve and Sam make this clear—that there is a lot at stake for Sam’s emotional well-being by doing this—but for all the concern Steve expresses Sam essentially writes it off _(“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.”_ ).

And that bugs me, because it is such a _sidekick_ thing to do. To dismiss any problems that may arise for the supporting character themselves (emotionally, physically, etc.) in favor of riding the my-only-motivations-are-your-motivations train all the way to my-character-is-only-here-as-a-benchmark-to-measure-the-hero’s-character-agaisnt-ville. Not that I think CA: TWS was really trying to do that; I actually feel that what it came down to was the same problem that most Marvel movies have—so much going on with plot intrigues and fight sequences and new characters that everything gets some screen time but nothing really gets enough (with the possible exception of fight sequences, since I don’t think anyone would argue that CA: TWS didn’t have enough [spontaneous orgasm-inducing ones] of those). I don’t think it would have been possible to flesh out Sam Wilson’s character in the way that I’m talking about in his first movie; it’s taken 2-4 films each just to get fleshed out Avengers characters. But I still feel that it is problematic to present Sam as so starry-eyed-cum-selfless that he reenters a life that he’s spent at least a few years recovering from without so much as a montage of pensive consideration.

But let’s say that that is just his kneejerk reaction. _Holy shit Captain America and Black Widow are here and they ~~want~~ need me to help them oh shit I could be the first black Avenger let’s do this ~~plus they are both super hot not that that matters I’m just saying~~._  Okay, I’ll buy that as what gets him to help break into Fort Meade and threaten a secret government agent like he’s James Bond. But the moment that the Winter Soldier starts shooting through car roofs and ripping out steering wheels, I have to believe that even the most starstruck fanboy and/or dedicated soldier would be like, _Well_ ** _fuck_ this**. So what is it about his character (that we are given in this film) that leads him to disarm an overly-weaponized lackey and enter into a firefight without any protective gear of his own? Why does he physically put himself between Steve (the super soldier) and imminent danger not once but twice in the span of ten minutes? Is it just loyalty to a man he’s only had three full conversations with (and a woman he’s only had one with)? Is it the moment of truth; does he do it because that’s just what superheroes do? Or is he simply not abandoning his people in an ambush? If so, they why doesn’t he peace out after they’re (relatively) safe in Fury’s bunker?

The simple answer is: Because he’s the Falcon—he’s a superhero and superheroes don’t peace out when shit gets rough. But I think there’s more to it than that. I think he can’t leave for the same reason that Peggy was willing to sneak Steve into Austria, that Howard flew the plane for them, that Bucky punched out bullies in back allies and faced down HYDRA agents without bullets, that Natasha tried to draw the Winter Soldier away on the causeway, and ultimately that the Winter Soldier couldn’t make the lethal shot.

It’s because he’s come to care for _Steve_ and not just care about Captain America. It’s because he believes in Steve and decides that—like so many others before him—Captain America is great and all but Steve is something worth sacrificing yourself for, if it comes down to it. I think that moment of _“Go! I got this!”_ marks the change from Sam doing this for Captain America to Sam doing this for Steve.

And that changes their dynamic as well. Because respect and admiration and fanboying is fine for Captain America, but there has to be something more to motivate his relationship with Steve. Captain America is a soldier; Sam bonds with him over the soldier experience. But is a lot more than just a soldier in Steve, and I think what motivates Sam to stay with him is the fact that he can’t quite pin him down yet.

Sam is a counselor by profession and by personality. That’s probably the role he sees himself in with most people, the role that he feels comfortable and validated in. We see him take on a therapist’s attitude and role in his very first interaction with Steve. Sam reads Steve-the-solider; he knows what to say to break through Steve’s defenses, knows what advice to give, and Steve accepts it like a good little patient. In their second interaction, Sam becomes the military tactician as they decide how to access HYRDA from within S.H.I.E.L.D.—again it is a soldiers’ interaction, something that Sam would be familiar and comfortable with. Then comes the battle, and after that things change. Their next interaction alone is the flashback scene and—in a callback to the opening—Sam tries to be Steve’s counselor again. He tells him what a counselor would say, tries to help him deal with the situation in a productive way. But Steve rejects him as a counselor now—not because he doesn’t respect Sam’s expertise but because they aren’t counselor and patient anymore. They’re friends. And you can tell Sam is thrown off, frustrated. He doesn’t really know how to react because Steve’s not letting him care the way he thinks he has to; the way he’s taught himself how to. And Steve—who was always willing to put others before himself—is suddenly unable to do so because Sam is trying to beat him to the punch. They both have to relearn how to interact with—how to _care about_ —each other.

So they tease and banter and sometimes it’s guarded and other times it’s tentative and flirty. Sam doesn’t always hide the naked affection he has for Steve from showing on his face and Steve still worries but respects Sam’s competency enough to let him do what he needs to do without Steve primed to save him at every turn and when Sam says, _“I’m more of a soldier than a spy”_ what he means is that he’s passing over the glamour of superhero antics (hunting down HYDRA et. al.) to instead track down Steve’s emotional trauma in a plan that isn’t particular healthy and certainly isn’t what Sam-the-counselor would advise but Steve’s his friend and what are friends for if not to enable bad decisions and then make sure that they’re there to protect one another as much as they can from the fallout.

Steve surprises Sam, and Sam surprises Steve. Sam’s the only person in Steve’s life (post-Peggy and with Bucky still coping with his own identity issues) who’s not expecting anything from him other than just being himself. As much as I love the complex and deep bonds that have formed between Steve and Natasha and Steve and Fury, their primary mode of interaction is still as co-workers first. They come to Steve for Captain America. Sam stays after Cap’s work is done; he stays for Steve. Sam and Steve push each other out of their mutual comfort zones with what it means for them to _connect_ and _be with_ and _care about_ and whatever comes next in the CA arc, neither of them will be motivated to act—individually and together—solely by intangible moral values or self-sacrificing impulses or hero worship anymore. By coming into Steve’s life in CA: TWS, Sam changed the game for the franchise as a whole.

And I, for one, believe that THAT is what makes Sam and the Sam/Steve dynamic so awesome.

[photo source **([x](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fmoviepilot.com%2Fposts%2F2013%2F10%2F29%2Ftrailer-breakdown-captain-america-the-winter-soldier-1157352%3Flt_source%3Dexternal%2Cmanual%23%21bbN6WA&t=N2NmM2RhYTcxZThhYjNhY2EwN2FjMjYxMDUwZTE0ZjNkZTczNmNlMixaUVNpdG1lOA%3D%3D))** ]


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